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Saturday, December 28, 2013

While I am not a doctor or physical therapist, as a coach of
distance runners for some years now I have learned a few treatments for various
minor injuries, aches and pains that I have found to be very effective and
often speeds along the healing process.

I wanted to share one with you today that seems to be very
effective for treating minor running related soft tissue injuries, aches and
pains and is easy to use on the lower leg (feet, ankles, calves).

Execution: the runner submerges the affected area in ice
water for a period of time, then switches to warm/hot water for a period of
time, and then back to cold/ice water again for a period of time. A second round of warm and then cold can be
done if time permits. I recommend this
treatment always begin and end with cold.
For the lower leg, I have found using an old cooler as an easy container
to use for the water and is one that the lower leg can easily fit in. A bathtub or whirlpools are other good locations to do this treatment

Time: while there is some leeway in terms of length
of time used for submersion, for the lower leg I have found that 10-15 minutes
in each (cold water or hot water) at a time seems to work well. This gives ample time to effectively reduce or
increase the tissue temperature.

Temperatures: I use reason as the rule of thumb here, we want the cold water pretty cold and the warm water pretty warm but never to the point of risking causing any skin or tissue damage. Generally I use cold water with a moderate amount of floating ice in it, and them warm water that feels very warm but that I can tolerate keeping my hand (or foot) in for a prolonged period of time. Extreme hot or cold isn't necessary.

Theory: The theory behind why this is an effective
treatment is that the contrast causes a vasodilation and vasoconstriction of
the area which promotes a pumping or flushing of blood and other fluids through
the area. This process bring more new healing
nutrient to the affected area and helps positively influence the inflammation
process by moving along and changing out stagnant fluids that have built
up.

Frequency: this therapy can be done 1-3 times a day if desired
and found helpful.

Note: while this can be an effective treatment for
some injuries, as with all injuries we should seek to find and correct the causes
of the injury and take steps to keep it from happening again.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Marathon running is a great sport and one of the biggest and
fastest growing participation sports in the country. From young to old and from beginner to
elites, more and more people are challenging themselves over the marathon
distance. As a coach who has helped
hundreds of people prepare for this challenge, I thought I’d write a blog about the 3 most common mistakes I see runners make in their marathon training, in the
hopes that you may be able to avoid them in your training.

The 3 biggest mistakes I see many marathoners make in their
training are:

1 – Building Up Too Fast

2 – Long Run Too Big % Of Weekly Mileage

3 – Attempting Herculean Workouts

Building Up To Fast

This isn’t a problem with only marathoners but many shorter
distance runners as well.
They see where they want to go (their goal) and they try and get there too
quickly. As a society we aren't very patient, we want what we want and we want it now, and unfortunately this often
carries over into our training. We get
excited and determined and sometimes overzealous and launch into training too
quickly and forget to take a slow and incremental build-up so that it is
sustainable over a whole training cycle.
We need to approach our training cycle like our races and make sure we don’t
go out too aggressive or we will crash and burn before we get to the end. This is where having a proven and successful
training plan can help to make sure your build-up is systematic and not too aggressive. Be sure to keep your mileage increases small
and gradual and build up over time.
Allow your body time to adjust and adapt to each increase before you increase
again. Marathon training is a marathon
not a sprint – pace yourself.

Long Run To Big % Of
Weekly Mileage

Another common mistake I see many runners make, especially
lower mileage marathoners, is that they let their weekly long run become too
high a percentage of their weekly mileage.
To calculate the percentage of your mileage that is done in your long
run simply divide your long run distance by your total weekly mileage. So if your long run is 15 miles, and your
total weekly mileage is 60, than your long run is 25% (15/60) of your weekly
mileage. As this percentage increases
so does your susceptibility to overuse injuries, illness or burn-out.
This is because we are placing a greater strain on our body in just 1
run rather than spreading it out more evenly over multiple runs. This increase in stress and risk seems to go
up significantly when our long run that is greater than 33% of our weekly
mileage. Most marathon training programs
ramp up the runner to long run of 20 miles (or more) in an effort to prepare
them to run 26.2 miles on race day. But
if you are following a lower mileage training program, where your maximum weekly mileage is 40
miles a week, then that long run can be up to 50% of your weekly mileage. That is a huge stress on the body and carries
a higher injury and burn-out risk.

What I usually do
with runner’s I coach who are running marathon on lower mileage, and so who’s
long runs will grow above that 33% of weekly mileage level, is to build up
their long run slowly over time and include weeks (usually every other week)
where we pull back on the long run distance, to give the body a break so
they aren't above that 33% every week. So as we build to a 20 mile long run, our weekly long run may look like the following: 12, 10, 14,
12, 16, 13, 18, 14, 20, building up every other week rather than every week.

This is one reason why I believe frequency is a key to
success in running, because by running more often we are able to spread our
mileage out more and it’s easier to build up to higher levels and this takes some
of the strain and injury risk away from our long runs.

Attempting Herculean
Workouts

This mistake is closely related to last one and is one I see
just as many elite runners making as I do beginners. These runners fall into a mind-set that the
marathon is an extreme race and so they must do extreme workouts to prepare for
it. But more often than not I find these
workouts leave them injured or over-trained more often than they help prepare them
for the race. Sometimes I see runners
who do frequent long tempo runs of greater than 50% of the marathon distance at
marathon goal pace, or extreme long runs with extra challenges added in, or
long runs with sections late in the workout at much quicker than goal race
pace. When done in the normal course of a
training load, often these workouts can be almost as hard as a race is when
tapered. The end result is often a tired
and worn down runner, not one healthy and energetic on the start line.

While 1 or 2 more challenging workouts such as this can be
helpful to raise confidence, they need to be use very carefully and sparingly in
training. I prefer to look at training and
preparation as a whole and not put too much focus on any one workout. But rather systematically work on all the
elements need 1 or 2 at a time and in a more measured and controlled fashion, so that over the course of a training cycle we
put together the whole package. If we
systematically approach our training and carefully put all the pieces in place,
we’ll find we can be well prepared without the risks that come from too many
herculean efforts in training. Make sure
your best performance of the training cycle comes in the goal race, not in a
workout 3 weeks before the race.

Conclusion

Do all you can to increase your changes of success and stay away from these 3 common mistakes. Pace yourself well in training and follow a systematic and well designed program, one that is patient and builds up slowly, keeps your long runs in good proportion to your mileage level, and avoid unnecessary risk from extreme workouts.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Training an elite marathoner is similar to chiseling a great statue out of stone. If you start with a perfect symmetrical pillar all you have to do is follow a certain formula of when and where to chisel and pretty soon the statue appears. There are a decent handful of coaches who understand and can implement some reasonable variation of this formula. The problem is that the world is not full of symmetrical pillars. Instead it's full of rough boulders, lopsided rocks and strange rock formations. Unfortunately there are very few coaches skilled at the art of adapting the formula to these situations. It takes an intuition and knowledge and an art form to see what is the statue inside of each of these different strange but wonderful rocks and help release it. We need more coaches who move beyond the formula and become artists, using their knowledge to help fill the world with beautiful marathoners, not just ineffectively trying to apply pillar formulas to oblong boulders. I think we'll find that these variations in rocks provide a wonderful diversity of marathoners. The question should not be "how to develop a great marathoner" but rather "how to release the great marathoner in YOU".

Saturday, October 5, 2013

The single biggest reason I have seen that people fail to
reach their running goals (and maybe just goals in general) is that they fail
to align their life with their goals.Most
people, especially runners, are good at defining a set goal of some type, but
then many of them drop the ball by not aligning their life in such a way as to make
that reaching that goal possible, or by not choosing a goal that fits within the hard
constraints they have in their life.

If your life and goals are not aligned, then
you repeatedly set yourself up for disappointment and frustration.But if you do align your life with achieving
your goals, then it may only be a matter of time, persistence and determination
until your goals are achieved.

Because of this, I recommend that when you set a goal, you
thoroughly understand and examine what is required in order reach that goal,
and make sure that you are willing and able to align your life in such a way as
to be able to do the things necessary to achieve that goal.This is where an experienced and
knowledgeable coach can come in. They
can tell you the things that will be necessary in order to achieve your goals
and then help you establish your plan and help you do them.

I am in no way judging anyone’s goals, desires, life
restrictions or willingness or ability to do certain things. Those are all very personal things. I am simply encouraging people to know and
understand their hard constraints in terms of what they have time and desire to
do, and make sure that their goals fit within these constraints.

While aligning your life with your goals does not assure
that you will achieve them, it does give you a fighting chance.It will likely take time, and healthy dosages
of persistence and determination, but
then that is what makes achieving them so special.

Friday, September 6, 2013

In the past week since CGI’s announcement about the
discontinuation of their support for elite running (and competitive?) at their Rock n' Roll race series, there
are have been multiple great articles and blogs on the subject from many people
such as: Toni Reavis, Camille Herron, and Josh Cox analyzing the situation and
giving their take on some of the problems in the sport of elite road racing and
some ideas for solving them.

I wanted to weigh in on the subject as well, and share some
thoughts from what I have seen and experienced.

As a coach of many emerging elite and a several elites Americans
road racers, I have seen firsthand the struggles and sacrifices these athletes
go through to pursue the sport in earnest.
They dedicate significant time and energy, and arrange their lives
around their pursuit of the sport of running.
While they do this freely and openly without promise of reward or
support, the lack of support in some cases can cause many of them (including
ones with great potential) to have to give up this pursuit. But it doesn't have to be this way. As my part in helping these emerging
American runners, I started the 2016 U.S. Marathon Trials Project to help many of
these athletes get the coaching they need to develop in the sport, and to help market
themselves in the hopes of securing sponsor support.

My premise behind the Project is simple: The more people the United States has seriously
training to run a high level marathon, the stronger, deeper and more
competitive we become as a marathoning nation and the more the sport will grow. For many serious runners,
the goal and dream of competing in and doing well at the U.S. Olympic
Marathon Trials keeps them training and competing at a high level, and
motivates them to continue to improve. The 2016 U.S. Marathon
Trials Project has been established to help deepen our country as a
marathoning nation, and to help serious runners chase and accomplish their
goals and dreams.

While I seek to help these emerging American athletes from a
coaching perspective, I am calling for more race directors, organizers and
sponsors to do so as well.

While I love competition and support it at every level, but I
believe it should be tiered to help develop emerging talent. So while it is wonderful to have the World
Marathon Majors and other major international level races and fields (and I
hope these continue to get better organized and grow), I think that domestically, more of the local,
regional and “B level” national races need to support U.S. athletes to help
them develop to that international level.
This means having American only prize money and support (comp. entry and
travel assistance) and I believe it is in the best interest of these races to do so.

Here is why I think this makes sense for these
local/regional/national “b level” races and what I think should be required
from the athletes.

Races: Having American
athletes be the top athletes at your event enhances the interest of your sponsors
and the media, because these athletes are most closely matched to their target
demographics. To the participants of
the events (and their family and friends) the American athletes are the easiest
to relate to and be inspired by, as are likely to have most in common with
them. The American athletes can also usually
engage the fans and media and their fellow participants more easily in
conversations and interviews and provide more closely related encouragement. The American athletes also have social media
followers and fans that are local and regionally based and that more closely
overlap your event and sponsor demographics. As such these athletes can be very helpful in
promoting and drawing attention to your event.
An additional benefit would be the opportunity to have a patriotic
association to your race as an event that supports and promotes the development
of U.S. talent. And at a more macro-level, the increased support to emerging American athletes will make it more likely that more of them will be able develop and eventually compete favorably at the highest level in international competitions. This will help the sport of competitive running grow in the U.S. in terms of interest and participation, which in turn helps your race's participation levels and the benefits to your sponsors. I also encourage races
to require some things (such as meet & greats, autograph session, media
interviews, attendance of the awards, school/group visits) from the U.S.
athletes in exchange for, and at appropriate levels for, the support/opportunities you are providing.

American athletes: if
you wish to receive this support and opportunities, and continue to receive it,
you need to do more than just come, run and leave. Your participation and what you receive has
to be worth it to the races and their sponsors.
If it is not we will see more of what CGI has done and the support will
go away. You need to be engaging to the
fans, participants and media. You need
to be thankful and show appreciation to the sponsors and race directors. Be respectful of the events and not withdraw from
the event on short notice unless absolutely necessary. You are an ambassador for elite running in
the U.S. You have the opportunity to
inspire the next generation and inspire people to improve their health and well-being. Many of you have significant social media
followings, use it help these races and sponsors promote their events. Support is a two way street, make sure both
lanes are open and free flowing.

Like most American runners and sponsors, I want to see more
U.S. athletes at the front of the lead packs and in the top finishing places of
major road races and championships. I
believe a major step towards making that happen is providing them with more
opportunities for support on their way up to that level, and believe it can be
in the best interest of local, regional and national races to help them in this
fashion as well.

To the races who already have adopted this stance of supporting American athletes. Thank you! Please know that I and all the members of the 2016 U.S. Marathon Trials Project appreciate your support.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Can you run effectively by feel? If you were to show up at a race, your watch
died on the start line and the mile markers didn't have clocks, so you were
forced to run entirely by feel, how would you do?

Like most coaches, I love getting pace data and assigning
pace ranges to my runners. It is hard
data that can be analyzed and equated to various performance levels. We can analyze, like I have often done here
on this blog, and tell you the fastest races seem to be run on even to slight
negative splits; that in most cases we need to adjust x% for certain weather
conditions; and that a tempo run at x:xx pace indicates a race fitness of xx:xx
for a 15k. This is all good and useful
information if used appropriately.

But we need to be careful (runners and coaches) that we are
focused on effort and feel on the input side and save our pace analysis for
afterwards for feedback so we can adjust that input.

In an ideal world, I would assign a runner a 30 minute tempo
run, they would go out and run a hard 30 minutes at whatever pace had the
proper feel, without looking at their watch, and then they would come back and
download the data from the run and we could see what the pace and spits where
and learn from and give feedback based on that.
Feedback may be things like: “we need to start out a little more
conservative” which is a feel that the runner can take into account the next
time the workout is performed. Or “you
had too much left for the last repeat or late in the tempo, you can be a little
more aggressive earlier in the workout”.

By mastering the feel of workouts and races, we bullet proof
ourselves to a certain extent. We avoid over training, we avoid big mistakes
in race pace adjustments, bad races are less likely to happen, and we take away
some of the pressure and preoccupation of having to try and hit an absolute
pace range regardless of feel.

But running by feel takes practice and experience, as you
have to learn the proper feel of the workouts and races and how to judge how
much you have left in the tank. Staying in
the moment becomes about pushing appropriately for the stage of the race or
workout you are in, rather than nail a certain split. This doesn't mean we can’t look at our watch at certain
points for some intermediate feedback, but it should be used as a tool and sanity check, not a
slave master.

I try and talk to my runners about the feel I am looking for
in workouts, and plan to move more in this direction for races as well; encouraging
them more and more to learn and focus on the right effort and feel.

In workouts, that appropriate effort level is one in which
we are working hard but sustainable, pushing ourselves while staying in
control. In continuous run stress workouts (such as a
tempo runs or steady state runs) we should seek to find a groove or rhythm that
we can sustain for the whole run, finishing feeling like we worked very hard
but could continue on a little bit if we had to. Similarly in repeat workouts, we gauge our
effort so that we work hard but finish without dying/fading, feeling like
another repeat or at least part of another repeat at that pace would be
possible. Easy and recovery runs then,
become focused on keeping the feel of the run easy and not pushing the
pace. Then by looking at our paces and
splits afterwards, we can use this data in comparison to the charts, that I and
other coaches have developed based on the physiology of the sport, to help us
adjust our efforts accordingly and learn the right feel for executing the workouts
in the most beneficial ways.

In races, we gauge our efforts based on feel given the
conditions and race distance, but in the case of races, we can push to the
limits, so that at the finish line we have given it our all. Through experience, in our workouts and other
races, we learn how hard we can push at what point and still make it to the end
without dying/fading/bonking. Splits and
paces that we can take and analyze afterwards, show any areas for improvements
we may be able to make next time.

A runner that can master running by feel is a very scary
runner indeed, as they rarely have a bad race, they rarely over train, and they
are adept at adjusting to any course, distance or conditions, and they are less stressed on the starting line.

Challenge yourself to start doing some or all of your
workouts and races in this fashion and don’t be a slave to your watch, but
rather use the splits and paces you take (or your Garmin records) along the way
as feedback afterwards not edicts during the workout or race.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

The appropriate or acceptable pace to run at on easy runs is a topic often
debated by distance runners and coaches and usually with a wide variety of opinions. So I wanted to weigh in on the topic here on
my blog. As with most things in running, I try to approached
the topic with a logical analysis; breaking things down into its elemental
parts, defining what the goal is, and then deciding on how best these parts can
be used to accomplish this goal. What I am presenting here is my interpretation of each of these things
(rarely is it 100% black and white).

The Goal

The goal of an easy/recovery run is to recover from a stress
workout, while maintaining or advancing our general aerobic fitness and
cellular adaptations to running. Easy/Recovery
runs are a key part of the stress and recovery principle, which states that we
must stress a body in a certain discipline (running) and then allow the body to
recover, and once it has recovered it will be better adapted to the stress than
it was before (fitter). (see illustration above) I call one complete stress and
recover cycle a “base unit” in our training.
The easy run is an integral component of the base unit, as this is where
the super compensation occurs.

Given this goal, the question becomes how much and at what
pace should our easy running be in order to recover and gain the super-compensation
benefits, while still maintaining or advancing our aerobic fitness and
adaptations.

The answer to that question will depend largely on how hard
the stress portion of the base unit was, and how long we have to recover before
our next stress workout. The answer
would likely be different if we have 3 days between stress workouts than it
would be if we have to have just 1 day between workouts. But not so much the pace of the easy runs, but rather the duration of them, as I will explain in a minute.

The Elemental
Parts

How much work/effort we do in any run is a product of multiple
factors including the duration of the run, the pace we run, the course we run
on and the weather condition. In this
analysis I hold the other elements constant so I can focus on the duration and
speed components of this equation.

To give us units to work with let’s use minutes of running
for the duration, and for the pace let’s use a percentage of lactate
threshold pace. (I define lactate threshold
pace as roughly the pace we can hold for 60 minutes in an all-out race effort).

Both speed and pace are critical in our analysis. 60 minutes at 75% of lactate threshold (LT)
pace is a greater overall effort than 30 minutes at 75% of lactate threshold
pace; likewise 60 minutes at 85% of lactate threshold pace would be a greater effort
than 60 minutes at 70% of lactate threshold pace. So we
must consider both in reaching our goal.

In the book “Daniels’ Running Formula”, Dr. Jack Daniels
develops a chart that assigns a single point value to each run based on the
duration of the run and the relative pace of the run.
If we determined that in order to recover from our last stress workout
before our next one, that we could only do a run of 20 point in value on Dr.
Daniels’ chart, then there would be multiple
ways to get those 20 point. We could run
a shorter duration at a faster pace or we could run for longer but at a slower pace. In theory either way would produce the
recovery desired.

So then one might state, “so it doesn't matter how slow or fast
I run then right, as long as I adjust my duration to match”. My answer
to that would be “only within a certain range”.
Here is why:

If we run too fast on the run (faster than a certain point) we begin substantially stressing certain systems of the body that we want to be recovering from the previous stress, not stressing again. This manifests itself by reduced performance on
our stress workout days and a feeling of not being recovered from our last stress workout.

The slower we run, the less muscles fibers that are actively
being used and the less bio-mechanically efficient we run. So if we run too slow on the easy run (slower
than a certain point) we may be teaching our body bad bio-mechanical habits, and
even worse, doing so for an extended period of time. We run
fast intervals at times on our stress days to teach our body to operate more
efficiently/economically, but similarly if we subject our body to prolonged periods
at paces that are too slow, we can teach it to be inefficient and bio-mechanically
uneconomical. This manifests itself not
on our slow days (which are easy) but through being more injury prone on our
stress days and long runs, where our bio-mechanical bad habits become more dangerous. But because the injury or problem happens in
a stress workout rather than easy run day, most runners and coaches fail to
make the connection to their easy run paces.

So what we want to do is run our easy runs slow enough to
let the necessary systems recover and fast enough not to teach our body bad
bio-mechanical habits. So what is that appropriate easy pace range? I believe this range to be (and many other elite
coaches and researchers seem to generally agree) between 20% and 30% slower
than lactate threshold pace or roughly 65% to 75% of maximum heart rate (for
those who use a HR monitor).

So if your lactate threshold pace is 6:00 per mile, than
your easy runs would be best done at a pace of between 7:12 (6:00 + (6:00 x
.20)) and 7:48 per mile (6:00 + (6:00 x .30)).

Note: These paces may
need to be adjusted for weather and/or course conditions.

With this safe pace range set then, the variable we change is our duration in order to get the proper recovery needed. Gradually over time, as our fitness and capacity grows, we may be able to increase the duration of these easy runs. Easy pace can also progress to the extent our lactate threshold improves.

If in our training, we use a 3 day base unit: a stress day
followed by 2 easy run days as recovery, at the beginning of the training cycle we may determine that we can run for
50-60 minutes in our easy run pace range (20-30% slower than LT pace) and be
properly recovered for the next stress workout.
Gradually during the course of the cycle or over the course of the year,
this duration may increase, to say 60-80 minutes, as our work capacity
grows.

Common Mistakes (IMHO)

One mistake (in my opinion) that I often see runners make is
they determine the distance they want to do on a recovery day first and then
adjust the pace accordingly. This
happens often with marathoners who want to increase mileage too quickly. This leaves them susceptible to running too
slow (teaching the body bad bio-mechanics) if they pick a distance that doesn't allow
them to stay in the easy pace range I have outlined. These runners feel great about getting in the
extra distance, but run the increased risk of injuries from running for prolonged
periods in an inefficient manner.

I suggest that instead they should determine the appropriate easy pace (20-30% slower than LT pace) and then see how much
distance/duration they can cover at that pace range and still adequately recover, and start there and try and grow that as
their fitness improves.

Another mistake I often see is, runners running outside of
their appropriate easy pace range on their easy days, in order to run with
runners who are faster than they are.
This often results in the runner not adequately recovering from the last stress
workout and thus not getting the full super-compensation (bump in fitness) they
should/could be getting from the work they did.

While I know it’s tempting to run with faster runners on a
day when it’s possible to keep up with them, but good and effective training
requires adhering to the principles of stress and recovery. Luckily the easy pace range is larger than most hard
training paces, so this does allow for some runners of slightly different
fitness levels to run together at a pace within both of their easy pace ranges,
but runners should be careful not to stray too far outside their peer group on
recovery runs.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Any U.S. citizen wishing to compete in the 2016 Olympics in the marathon
representing the United States, must first qualify for the trials race, and then
finish in the top 3 spots in the trials race, in order to earn themselves an
U.S. Olympic team birth.

Qualifying
For The Trials Race

In order to qualify for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, the
athletes must meet the following standards (information copied from the USATF
website):

Event"A""B"
Men
Marathon
2:15:00
2:18:00 Half
Marathon
1:05:00

Event"A""B"

Women
Marathon
2:37:00
2:43:00 Half
Marathon
1:15:00

Qualifying window: August 1, 2013 until
30 days prior to the designated Olympic Trials race.

Qualifying Guidelines

Athletes must meet the "B" standard
in order to enter the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon event.

The qualifying mark must
be made in a race on a certified course Sanctioned by USA Track &
Field or a member federation of the International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF). The course must be USATF/IAAF/AIMS certified with an
active course certification and have an elevation loss no greater than
3.25 meters/km. All course configurations will be accepted (no minimum
separation).

The qualifying standards
must be met from August 1, 2013 until 30 days prior to the designated
Olympic Trials race.

All qualifying
performances are subject to verification.

"Gun" time is
the only acceptable method of timing. Chip/net times cannot be used for
qualifying. Consideration may be given to "chip/tag" times for
competitors with "gun" times extremely close to the above
qualifying standards.

Athletes meeting the “A”
standard will be provided funding support.

Trials Race Date

The date(s) and
location(s) of the trails race have not yet been announced.During the last 30 years the trials races
have been held as early as the November the year prior to the Games and as late
as May the year of the Games.It seems
very likely that the trials would again be sometime within the window, making
them between November 2015 and May 2016 (although this is not guaranteed).

Qualifying Window: Open

Based the above
information, the qualifying window for the trials standards is officially open as of today!I would suspect that we will see many
athletes seeking to secure their trials spot with a performance this fall
(2013), or next spring or fall (2014), in order to not have to chase a time in
the months leading up to the trials.

EliteMarathoning.com's 2016 U.S. Marathon Trials Project

A year and half ago
I started a website called EliteMarathoning.com as a way to share a very successful
training and racing philosophy for the marathon, in order to be a good
reference tool for runners and coaches alike.My goal in starting the site was to help and encourage people to train
to run the marathon at the highest levels in the sport.

When the 2016 U.S.
Olympic Marathon Trials Standards were announced in December 2012, I decided
what better way to encourage and help people to train at a high level in the
sport than to help them qualify for and do well in the Marathon Trials. It is something that gets many people
motivated and provides them with a lofty but attainable goal to work
towards.

So through EliteMarathoning.com,
I started the 2016 U.S. Marathon Trials Project in which I provide personal coaching and encouragement to help Project members achieve their goals in relation to the U.S. Marathon Trials and the marathon event.

In the first 6
months the Project has grown to 10 members before the trials qualifying window
even opened. The project members range
from those who sole goal is to meet the qualifying standard and compete in the
trials, to those who have competed in the trials before and want to go back, to
those who goals include making the Olympic Team.

In the months and
years ahead, I hope to add more members to the Project’s ranks, and
help all of the Project members earn their qualifying times and meet or
exceed their goals at the trials. And then repeat the process again in subsequent Olympic cycles (2020, 2024, etc)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Since Dew Point is a more useful measure of the water saturation
of the air and thus its effect on our body while we run, I am recommending
using it (rather than relative humidity), in conjunction with air temperatures, in determining warm weather pace
adjustments to training.

The revised training pace adjustment formula is as follows:

Add together air temperature and dew point and see where the
combined number places you on the following adjustment chart:

100 or less: no pace adjustment

101 to 110: 0% to
0.5% pace adjustment

111 to 120: 0.5% to
1.0% pace adjustment

121 to 130: 1.0% to
2.0% pace adjustment

131 to 140: 2.0% to
3.0% pace adjustment

141 to 150: 3.0% to
4.5% pace adjustment

151 to 160: 4.5% to
6.0% pace adjustment

161 to 170: 6.0% to
8.0% pace adjustment

171 to 180: 8.0% to
10.0% pace adjustment

Above 180: hard
running not recommended

Note: a range is given as there are numerous individual factors, such as the size, fitness and physical make-up of the runner, and their level of acclimatization to the heat and air saturation levels, that will play into how much of a pace adjustment is needed.

The above are the pace adjustment percentages to use for continuous runs. For repeat workouts such as 400’s 800’s, or mile repeats, I recommend using half of the continuous run adjustment as the
body has a chance to cool somewhat during the recovery between repeats.

For those who want help doing the math for these adjustments
the following charts calculate the adjusted pace for various paces and %
adjustments.

Examples:

At the time of our planned continuous run the air temperature is 74 degrees and dew point if 71 degrees - a typical early morning in summer over much southern United States this summer. We would add these 2 numbers together to get 145 (74 + 71).

According to our chart, a total of 145 calls for a pace adjustment of 3% to 4.5%. We had planned to do our run at 7:00 pace under normal conditions, so we adjust the 7:00 pace by 3% to 4.5% and get an adjusted pace range of 7:13 to 7:19 per mile.

If, under those same weather conditions we had planned to run 8 x half mile repeats at 3:00 per repeat (6:00 per mile pace). We would cut the 3% to 4.5% pace adjustment in half and use a 1.5% to 2.25% pace adjustment. A 1.5% to 2.25% on 6:00 pace is a 6:06 to 6:08. So instead of targeting 3:00 per half mile, we would have an adjusted target of 3:03 to 3:04 per half mile.

Prior Method

Most of the pace adjustments obtained using this method align very closely to what I have shared previously when using relative humidity to adjust air temperature; but I believe the use of both dew point and air temperature to be a more accurate basis for the adjustment calculations, so I am offering this modification.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

One of the most valuable items I have as a coach is my
workout toolbox. This is a listing of
all the workouts I use as a coach and notes about when, where, why and how to
use each to its maximum effectiveness.

I have a rather large toolbox and am always seeking ways to
improve and expand it. I am constantly
reading, thinking, analyzing and talking with other coaches and runners about
the various tools used in training. But I am also picky about what is in my
toolbox, so I have some very stringent criteria that must be met before a workout
is added. Before a workout is added to
my tool box I must have a thorough understanding of:

The basic physiology of the workout – what
systems does it work and how

When to use the workout

How to best execute the workout

Any variations of the workout and how do they
differ from each other

How effective is the workout at producing
results

The sources for workouts are almost endless. It is bound only by resources and
imagination. The sources of the workouts
currently in my toolbox include: personal experience as a runner, experiences
as a coach, the experiences of friends and colleagues, through reading articles,
books and research reports, by talking with other coaches and runners, and hours of research, analyzing and brainstorming.

I am also not afraid to tweak workouts once they are in the
toolbox. I am always seeking ways to
improve them and make them more effective or identifying new variations to be used
in certain circumstances. As new
information or research is available, and as experience with each workout
grows, I may modify or expand a workout in the toolbox or add a new workout. I think my toolbox has been through the fire
and proven to be extremely effective, but I am never satisfied with that, I
want it to be even better and will always work to make improvements to it. As a coach I want to have the most effective,
bad-ass toolbox in the business, so I can be the most effective coach I can possibly
be at helping runners reach their goals and maximum potential in the sport.

Organizing the
Toolbox

My tool box is organized into 2 tiers. The first tier is general workout category
based on the primary purpose of the workout.

·Speed

·Stamina

·Endurance

·Recovery

Then under this first tier is a second tier based on the prevalence
of the workout in terms of how often and when it can and should be used. This tier is broken up into:

Staple Workouts

Breakout Workouts

Specialty Workouts

Sharing My Toolbox

On August 1st, I will be launching a new retail page
to my coaching services and resource website mprunning.com. On this page I will be offering to share a substantial
piece of my toolbox with you, and in a detailed way beyond what is found on my
websites or blog, through a product entitled:

Coach Hadley’s Workout
Toolbox

This offering will include:

Detailed notes, instructions and tips on the top
18 workouts in my toolbox.

Training pace charts so that you can easily
determine the correct pace ranges to use for each workout based on your (or
your athlete’s) current fitness level

All organized on to 8” x 5” note cards,
laminated, so they can easily be taken to workout sites to be used and referred
to.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

“A life lived with passion, even if
it fails to reach its goals, is far superior to a life lived without passion, even if it is
successful”

For the last
couple of years you have heard me talk about what I believe to be the 4 tenets
of training for distance running in order to achieve your full potential in the
sport: consistency, capacity, frequency
and mixture. Today I want to introduce
you to a 5th tenet: Passion!

Let me
explain what I mean by passion in terms of distance running, and how it is a
vital component to our success.

Passion:
A deep desire and love of the sport to the point that you decide to do
your very best and develop the talent you have for it. This passion requires that you maintain a
positive attitude about training and racing because running is seen as a great
gift and as such it is a privilege to do no matter the outcome of the run,
workout or race.

This
passion, by its very definition, requires us to also approach training in a
smart and disciplined manner, as well as an enthusiastic one, because it will
take smart training coupled with hard training to reach our full potential. This
means while enthusiastic about workouts and working hard, we must balance that
enthusiasm in order to make sure we adhere to the other tenets of training,
because ultimately we must have all 5 tenets working together in unison in
order to realize its full synergy.

Thing we
need to know about this passion we seek:

Passion
is part feeling and part conscious decision – we have to want it (the easy part) AND have to
make the conscious decision to embrace it and make it happen (the hard part).

If
it is not fed and safe guarded, passion can be diminished or even extinguished and if
not kept in check it can burn too high and burn out. So the passion we seek avoids the extreme highs
and lows and instead steadily and resolutely marches forward towards its goal.

The
passion we seek is a strong burning but resolute flame, the kind that can
weather the storms that will surely come from time to time, the one that will
slowly forge our bodies and minds in to rock hard manifestations of distance
running prowess over months and years of work.

When
tough conditions present themselves, such as inhospitable weather or
challenging courses, this passion embraces the challenge before it and see it
as an opportunity to grow, harden itself and improve. Its thoughts are never “how do I survive this”
but rather “how do I conquer it”.

Passion
is an attitude that permeates all aspects of our training on a daily basis, not
just when we get ourselves psyched up.
It is positive, it is resolute, and it is unwavering. Ups and downs in
training do not affect its strength or mission.

If we train with passion we have no need to brag or be obnoxious on race day to try and psych ourselves up, instead we arrive on the start line with a calm confidence, knowing we are ready for the task at hand.

When this
passion and attitude is coupled with the other 4 tenets, we become a virtually
unstoppable distance running machine. The only question is when we will arrive
at our goals, not if we will arrive. That is not to say we won’t have set backs or
make mistakes along the way, but when we do we will learn from them and quickly
rise again and march forward again towards our goals. Just like a fully loaded freight train, we
will be almost impossible to derail until we reach our goals and beyond.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Every training program should be comprised of both staple
workouts and breakout workouts.

Staple Workouts: These are the tried and true workouts that
are very effective at working certain targeted systems in a very direct
manner. These workouts include things
like VO2 Max repeats, LT tempo runs, and the easy pace long run. They are simple, straight forward and usually
very effective.

Breakout Workouts: These are the workouts we add into the program
in order to spice things up, work systems from a slightly different angle in
order to spark new growth in order to keep the fitness progression from
stagnating. These workouts include things
like hill repeats, wave tempos and progression runs.

Mixture

Staple workouts will comprise the majority of the workouts
we do in training but the exact mixture between staple and breakout workouts will
depending on many variables including previous training cycles, number of years
of purposeful training, and length of the current training cycle.

Similarly, what breakout workouts we utilize will depend on variables
such as the individual’s strengths and weaknesses, their prior training, and
what distance they are training for.

Good intuition, lots of experience, and a sound
understanding of the physiology of all the workouts, are the keys to finding
the right mixture between staple and breakout workouts and also finding the
right workouts within each to utilize and when.

Tips

Have a couple of different breakout workouts for
each workout category – speed, stamina and endurance.

If your fitness progression in a certain
category starts to stagnate, add in a breakout workout for that category into
your training.

Keep a training log and note the breakout
workouts you have used in the past that have been the most effective for
you.

Monday, June 24, 2013

As distance runners we are diligent with our training
routines and try and make sure we are doing all the little things we need to in
order to make sure our body is fit and ready to train and race hard. But it isn't always as simple as it sounds to
make sure that you are adequately or optimally doing everything . In blocks of hard training the things we need to keep up with and monitor go up, and the things we do in easier
training may not be adequate any longer.

Specifically in this blog I am referring to the level of
hydration, electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and hormones that our body
needs in order to perform at its maximum.
In order to monitor and ensure
these areas are at optimal (or at least sufficient) levels I am recommending
that competitive runners, especially those running higher mileage levels, have
some simple and relatively inexpensive blood tests performed on a periodic
basis. The benefits of doing so is 2 fold – first it helps
us determine if there is any area of immediate concern that may be derailing or
jeopardizing our current ability train and race optimally; and secondly by
tracking our test results over time, we can see pick out any potential
troubling trends and better learn our body and at what score in various areas do
we usually perform our best. These periodic tests can help us
fine tune our ancillary (non-running) routines in order to help us perform at our best.

OK so how often and what should I test? Good questions and like most things on our
sport the answer is “it depends”. But I do have some basic recommendations that are a good start and something I think will be sufficient for the vast majority
of serious runners. Then as we follow
these recommendations we can tweak what do to optimize it for our specific situation.

What Tests To Have

Here is what I recommend that you get tested as part of your
periodic testing program:

TSH Levels – This gives you a basic indication if your thyroid
gland is working appropriately or at least indicate if a more thorough tests should be done in this area. Some runners have problems in this area.

Ferritin Levels – this is a good indicator of the iron stores
available in your bone marrow to make new red blood cells. Many runners, especially higher mileage
runners, tend to be too low in this area if they don’t supplement iron
intake. Olympic Marathon Champ Joan Benoit Samuelson,
a notoriously good eater, says that iron was the only thing she had to regularly
supplement.

Chemistry Panel – this is a test for many mineral levels in
your blood, including key electrolytes such as sodium and potassium. Also can give you a good indication if you are
dehydrated and if you are high or low in any of these key minerals.

Additional tests can be included such as glucose levels, iron
and vitamin D, or others if desired or if you have reason to suspect something
may be up or need to be tracked based on personal or family history.

You can request these tests from your primary care physician
or go to an independent lab testing facility, such as “Any Lab Test Now”, and
have these tests run. It is simple and
the results are usually back within 48 hrs.
The cost will vary based on if you go through your doctor, what your
insurance is, or if you use an independent
facility. I know that I can get all of
the above tests done through “Any Lab Test Now” for a total of $129 (their “Basic
Check-up Panel” with Ferritin substituted in place of the Lipids test).

Reading The Test
Results

All of these test results will come with a list of what is considered
the “normal range” and what your score is.
But keep in mind that what is optimal for an athlete in serious training and
what is “normal” may not coincide perfectly.
I recommend that you either find a reputable person in sports medicine who
is use to working with athletes and reading blood tests results, to go over your
results with you; or you take some time to do some research and reading and educate
yourself on how to interpret the results yourself.

Once you get your results start a spreadsheet and enter your
results for each test and the date of the test.
Then when you get the test done again, note your new levels on the next
column/row. This way you will have an easy
place to see any trends and possibly catch some potential problems before they
fully manifest themselves. In certain tests you will notice certain
levels at which you feel best and what you need to do to get there (such as
ferritin and what level of iron supplementation you need to achieve that
ferritin level).

How Often To Test

I recommend having the complete battery of tests done 2 to 3
times per year, with a follow-up test in-between on any area that is outside of
the desired range. For example, if I get the full run of tests
done in January and everything looks good except for my ferritin levels, I may
make some changes to my iron supplementation routine and then just have just my
ferritin levels tested again in March to make sure my changes are working. Then have the whole battery of tests done
again in May or June. Additionally if you run into a period of a few
weeks in which we aren't feeling well and something seems off, by getting the
full battery of tests it may help you isolate the problem.

As serious runners, we want to leave no stone un-turned as we
seek to achieve our goals, and these test can help us make sure we are doing
what we need in terms of hydration, nutrition, vitamins and minerals, as well
as point out any issues that may be lurking.

Return on Investment

While following this recommendation can costs a few
hundred dollars per year, it can also help make sure that you are getting the
most out of the hundreds of hours you are putting into training and often the
thousands of dollars you are investing in race entries and travel to races.In all a very good return on your money in
addition to the invaluable peace of mind it can bring.Happy Running,Coach Mark Hadley